1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to computer system communication. In particular, this invention provides a solution for reducing low latency message reception receive queue latency.
2. Description of the Prior Art
I/O adapters define queue pairs (QPs), comprising receive queues (RQ) and send queues (SQ), for conveying messaging information from a software consumer to the adapter prior to transmission over a network fabric and for receiving messages by the consumer from an adapter coupled to the network fabric. Industry standards, such as the InfiniBand® (IB) Architecture Specification available from the InfiniBand Trade Association and IWarp from the RDMA Consortium, specify that the message information carded on QPs is in the form of a work queue element (WQE) that carries control information pertaining to the message. The above-identified documents are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. Also, one or more data descriptors point to the message data to be transmitted or the location at which received messages are to be placed.
Low latency message passing is a critical function in high performance computing applications. Typical data exchanges between system memory and InfiniBand adapters that are required to receive messages consume sizable amounts of time.
Some RQ applications have a need to reduce the latency incurred during data transfer operations. There is a need for a mechanism to enhance the standard RQ operations so that the lower latencies required by these applications can be achieved.